1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique used in a printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, printers are widely used in, for example, offices of companies and the printing can be performed by everybody with ease. To perform printing with a printer from a personal computer (PC), the PC requires installation of a printer driver for controlling the printer and generating print data. Generally, the printer driver is prepared for each operating system (OS) of the PC or each printer for printing and is provided by the storage medium such as a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and a floppy disk (FD) packed with the printer. An administrator generally acquires the latest printer driver by downloading it from a web page of a manufacturer of the printer via a public network.
The acquired printer driver and setting information to be used in the installation of the printer driver are located in the storage device shared on the network, and the locations of the printer driver and the setting information are announced to the public users to allow them to use the printer. The public user installs the printer driver into the PC according to the information acquired from the location based on the announcement.
Conventionally, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-092158 discusses such a technique as a method for installing the printer driver that an administrator creates setting information to be used by the installer as a definition file, and the definition file and the installer are called from a common execution file.
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-092158, the user can generate an execution file including freely set logical printer name and port name as the setting information to be used in the installation of the printer driver. When the user executes the execution file, if the logical printer designated by the setting information exists in the PC, the existing logical printer is overwritten with the setting information. In other words, if the port name designated in the setting information differs from the existing port name, a port is created with a newly designated port name. The port is set so as to be used in transmitting print data and, if the printer driver installed in the PC is outdated, the printer driver is updated.
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-092158, even if the user desires to update only the printer driver, the port is also newly created for the reason that the updated printer driver is released from the printer vendor. More specifically, such an issue may occur that a port name different from the existing port name is designated to a connection port of the logical printer. Accordingly, every time the printer driver is updated, an old port that is no longer used in the system may be left in the printer.
There is a method for causing the user to designate only an internet protocol (IP) address of the printer without allowing the user to designate an arbitrary port name. A format of the port name is formed into a stereotype format and the same IP address is associated with the same port name, so that a plurality of ports is not created with respect to the same IP address. For example, it is provided that, when “172.10.10.10” is designated as the IP address of the printer for executing printing, the port name is set to “IP—172.10.10.10”. If the port having a port name of “IP—172.10.10.10” already exists, the existing port is used without creating a new port.
In a standard transmission control protocol (TCP)/IP port included as standard equipment in the OS, a different port name is automatically created according to the version of the OS. For example, when the “172.10.10.10” is designated as the IP address of the device for executing the printing, in the OS of a certain version (i.e., a first OS), if the port is created with the standard TCP/IP port of the OS, the port name becomes the “IP—172.10.10.10”. On the other hand, in a case of the other OS having the other version (i.e., a second OS), if the port is created in a manner similar to the above, the port name becomes “172.10.10.10” by default.
A case where the port having the port name of “IP—172.10.10.10” is already created on the second OS is considered here. At this time, if the format of the port name is formed into the stereotype format, if the IP address of “172.10.10.10” is designated, the port having the port name of “172.10.10.10” comes to be newly created. More specifically, two ports including a port that is no longer used are created with respect to the IP address as the same printing destination.